Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) drug caches including heroin and (b) needles used for drug-taking were found in each prison during the last year for which figures are available; and how many prisoners tested positive for heroin use in each such prison in that year.

I am sorry that the response to this question was delayed by a failure in the data collection system.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) takes the issue of all contraband in prisons extremely seriously and deploys a comprehensive range of robust searching and security measures to detect items of contraband both at the point of entry to the prison and concealed within the prison. These include targeted searching, random and targeted mandatory drug tests, the use of x-ray machines and CCTV surveillance cameras, Body Orifice Security Scanners to detect contraband secreted internally, and the imposition of closed (non-contact) visits. Prisoners found with prohibited items face swift and robust punishment. This can include having days added to their custody, being transferred to a different prison and losing privileges.

The table below gives the number of seizures of heroin and needles (including improvised needles) seized in prisons in England and Wales in 2013. The third column shows the number of prisoners that tested positive for opiates, including heroin in each of those prisons. To disaggregate the data to show those samples positive for heroin from those positive for other opiates would require a detailed investigation of every prison’s locally held records, which would entail significant disproportionate cost.

Heroin finds have reduced by 82% when compared to 2007, positive opiate tests by 82% also, and the total number of incidents of drug finds has fallen by 19% since 2007. And, under this Government, the Random Mandatory Drug Testing rate has reached the lowest level since records began.

No drugs or equipment were found, or opiate tests failed, in 2013 at prison establishments that are not listed above.

It is important to note that many drugs are similar in appearance and in many cases drugs seized are not categorically identified by scientific analysis. Many will have been identified by appearance only.

All figures in this answer have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit.